Response validation helps ensure participants provide useful answers in typed response questions before moving forward. You can require responses to follow a specific format, like a valid URL, include certain keywords, or both.

This is especially helpful when you need structured or high-quality inputs for analysis.

Setting Up Response Validation

1. Open the study set-up panel

2. Scroll down to the guide section

3. Select add content, then select typed response

4. Toggle the question settings to access the available options.

Validation Options

1. Validate as URL

Enable this option to require responses to be a valid absolute URL.

To pass validation, the response must:

• Include a scheme (for example, https://)

• Contain no spaces

This is useful when asking for links to websites, profiles, or specific pages.

2. Retry Attempts (1–5)

This setting controls how many times a participant can retry after submitting an invalid response.

• If set to 3, the participant gets three chances to correct their answer.

• On the fourth attempt, their response is accepted even if it doesn’t meet the validation rules.

This helps balance data quality with participant experience.

3. Custom Rules

Custom rules let you require specific keywords or phrases in a response.

• Matching is case-insensitive

• The keyword just needs to appear anywhere in the response

How Are Rules Structured?

Rules are organized into groups, which gives you flexibility:

• Within a group

  • AND → all keywords must appear

  • OR → at least one keyword must appear

• Between groups

  • AND → all groups must pass

  • OR → at least one group must pass

A live preview shows a summary of your setup, making it easier to confirm your logic.

You can create up to 10 total rules across all groups.

Example Setups

1. Require a specific domain in a URL

   • Enable URL validation

   • Add a keyword rule like example.com

2. Accept either “yes” or “no”

• One group with two rules

• Combine with OR

3. Require both a category and sentiment

• Group 1 (OR): “apple”, “banana”, “orange”

• Group 2 (OR): “like”, “dislike”

• Combine groups with AND

What Participants Experience

If a response doesn’t meet the validation rules, participants see a clear error message explaining what to fix.

Examples include:

• “Please make sure your response includes ‘keyword’ and try again.”

• “Please enter a valid absolute URL (scheme required, no spaces) and try again.”

Validation only applies to the initial response. If the AI moderator asks a follow-up question, that response is not validated.

This feature helps you guide participants toward more structured and relevant answers without interrupting the overall flow of the interview.

Hope this helps! If you have any further questions, please reach out to our team at support@outset.ai or via chat.